DDR2-800 Firestix: PC5300 and PC6400!!??

[adondeeres]

I just bought an extra 2GB of the firestix as I'm planning on upgrading my OS to vista 64bit. Now I have 4GB, but strangely, CPUZ says the new sticks are PC2-6400 and says the 2 older sticks I bought in February are PC2-5300. I have the 5300's in the channel A and the 6400's in channel B. Should I switch these around?

I'm having major stability issues as most overclockers seem to have when upgrading to 4 x 1GB ram and filling all 4 slots on their motherboards.

I'm still playing around with voltages and setting, but I'm having a hard time keeping things stable. I went from DDR2-945/5-5-4-15-6-35-10-10-10-11/2.1V and currently running orthos on DDR2-756/5-5-5-15-10-12-10-14/2.3V. I'm running vNB @ 1.45, vFSB @ 1.45 and vDIMM @ 2.30 in BIOS (ASUS AI Suite for some reason reads these at 2.25V--I noticed BIOS the increments are 2.15, 2.25, 2.3, 2.35, etc: it skips 2.2V for some reason).

Am I running a risk of causing damage to these firestix at these settings? Right now, I just want this to be stable. Any suggestions if these settings fail me? I am using OCZ's XTC Memory cooler and the RAM at load actually feels much, much cooler at 2.3V (BIOS) than it felt at 2.1V without a fan. It's voltage that kills, not temp, right? I just don't want my components failing sooner than 6 years or so.

 

[996GT2]

2.3V is pretty much the limit for DDR2 if you're planning to use that system daily (and not just as a benchmarking machine). With active cooling, you should be ok at that voltage, but I would advise you not to go any higher for long term reliability purposes.

 

[adondeeres]

Originally posted by: 996GT2
2.3V is pretty much the limit for DDR2 if you're planning to use that system daily (and not just as a benchmarking machine). With active cooling, you should be ok at that voltage, but I would advise you not to go any higher for long term reliability purposes.

So would it be best to trust the 2.3V that I set it at in BIOS, or Asus AI Suite in windows, which says 2.25V.

Just a small note. I don't know if this matters. I currently have memory remapping disabled, so in bios it shows 2GB, 2.93GB in system properties and taskmanager, and CPZ shows 4GB.

When it's enabled, it shows 4GB in BIOS, 2GB in system properties and taskmanager, and CPUZ shows 4GB. Does this seems to be completely opposite of what others experience? I thought it was supposed to be enabled if 4GB is in use. I'm using winxp 32bit now.

 

[n7]

Remap enabled shows 4 GB for me in Vista 64.

As for why one of your pairs reads as PC2-5300, & one PC2-6400, it's just what they set the SPD too.
Doesn't mean that RAM can only run that fast, as you've proved via your OCing.

Personally, i don't think 2.3V is ideal for longterm use, as you can see a lot of dead dimms in the Micron dead thread @ XS.

If the RAM is warrantied for that or set to run at that, then maybe, assuming you don't mind a potential RMA, but your Firestix aren't.

If you can't get things stable @ 4:5, just run 1:1, as then you're just running DDR2-756, which i'm sure you could do @ 4-4-4 & low vdimm.

 

[adondeeres]

Well, just for kicks, I've downloaded and will install the trial version windows XP 64 bit from microsoft's site to see if remapping enabled will show 4GB in system properties/task manager. Maybe Asus messed up

I'm making progress. I was starting to get frustrated, so I raised a bunch of the other voltages. I was finally stable at DDR2-756 5-5-5-15-6-42-10-14-10-12, vNB @ 1.55, vDIMM @ 2.1, vFSB @ 1.45, and vCore @ 1.4625. Seems like vDIMM wasn't to blame; I have a feeling it's vCore since I believe that's where the MCH is. I'll try to bring my vNB back to 1.45 and vFSB back to 1.4. I hope I didn't do much permanent damage to my sticks since I had them at 2.3V for about 24hrs as I was testing, which was prior to raising vCore.

I wish I could drop my vCore back down to 1.45, but we'll see. Any one think I could drop it back to 1.45V (BIOS...vdroop was something like 1.40-1.41V) if I lowered my FSB from 378? 378 was pretty much on the border of stability/instability @ 1.45V. I believe I was orthos stable @ 379 or 380, but nothing much more. During summer, ambient can go up to 25C, which will probably take my Core Temp @ 100% TAT load up to 65-67C. I'd personally like it at 62-63C max.

And Thanks, n7 for pointing that thread out for me. That was an eye opener. :Q